Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Wentworth, the alternative Treasurer of Australia. The interest rate increase ‘has been overdramatised’! Well, the people in Western Sydney do not think it has been overdramatised. Eleven interest rate increases in a row means they are losing their homes in record numbers. This is his government’s legacy, the legacy of its lack of a plan. Those people do not think that we are being overdramatic when we say that we need to put in place a very conservative fiscal policy to put downward pressure on interest rates. They do not think that we are being overdramatic when we say that increasing government spending by 4.5 per cent a year needs to stop. They do not think we are being overdramatic when we say that we need to invest in infrastructure and skills to put downward pressure on interest rates by fixing the bottlenecks in the Australian economy, like the Reserve Bank asked the former government to do 20 times. (Time expired)

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